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Permalink Reply by Ace McCarron on September 7, 2010 at 23:04

I used to drink at the Antelope, and I remember making a point of dragging a playwright down there, whose play was being sniggered at by artistic staff, during it's production week at the Royal Court. He felt so isolated by events there that I, and my fellow crew members, took it upon themselves to make the move and look after him, in the way that we more habitually looked after the actors who had to get up and and perform on stage every night, frequently in the face of atrocious reviews, and in one case, a demonstration outside the theatre.
I contend that the management behaved very badly in this case, and applaud the Antelope Group's commendably broad response to the subtle, but pernicious power a theatre can wield over writers, particularly inexperienced ones, and over their careers.
As someone who makes most of his living from being the solitary lighting designer on each production, I hope I can imagine the sense of mystery with which writers regard other writers working with other companies. A little sharing of information seems to be having a great deal of influence.
From my own opera project I have had an evaluation response from a mentor who I only met two months after the staging of our workshop.
"You can only have one captain of the ship of a music theatre production, and that should be the director.”
This was, I am sure, in response to my stipulation that my libretto was not to be cut without my agreement, and I think exemplifies the extent to which directors of new work can exclude even a quantum leap in theatrical vision in the name of extending their own power base by bending a writiers work to their own habits and production style.
As an example of this, consider the way in which any notion of the poetic has been wiped clean from new drama. Directors do not wish to let the text bear this kind of attention, despite the fact that colleges are still churning out actors with precisely this kind of skill.
I have to say two things.
One. I am encouraged that this has been flagged up by the Artisic Management of the NTW. Why don't you send somene along in October, Lucy? Not me. I'm opera.
Two. If you're going to go to the Antelope, (walk out of the Royal Court, past the tube station, left, second left) it's license has always been based on being a servant's pub, and consequently, does not serve spirits.
Ace.